OREANDA-NEWS. November 18, 2011. Vladimir Putin: Mr Prime Minister, dear friend, we are happy to welcome you here in Moscow. We will be holding the 16th intergovernmental meeting. The volume of our trade and economic relations is large and, thankfully, keeps growing. In January through September of this year it grew 34% and will likely to reach USD 30 billion by the yearend.

Our relations are diversified and include cooperation in space, power generation, communications, transport, infrastructure, aviation, as well as in military technology. In a word, we have plenty to talk about. We are very glad to see you. Welcome.

Francois Fillon (via interpreter): Thank you for inviting me to Moscow. This is my fourth visit to Russia since I was appointed prime minister. We have met several times in France, which is evidence of growing and strengthening ties between France and Russia.

The year 2011 was symbolic for us as we worked on several significant joint projects. I am referring to the launch of the Soyuz spacecraft and the sale of the Mistral helicopter carrier, which provoked lengthy debates, as well as France’s participation in the Nord Stream gas pipeline. In short, we have not only launched large bilateral projects but have also successfully followed through on them.

French-Russian cooperation has a rich history of implemented projects and big potential for future projects. I am confident that today’s intergovernmental meeting will further facilitate the expansion of bilateral cooperation. This is the first time we will be discussing joint legal projects. We will also speak about the Greater Moscow and Greater Paris projects.

There are also plans for promoting cooperation under the Skolkovo technology park project.

I think the last remaining obstacles to Russia’s WTO accession will be removed providing even more opportunity for joint projects in the future. This is how we view Russia as a country that is an active economic player in the European market. This is exactly the type of relationship we want to develop with Russia. We would like to thank you personally for your striving and desire to strengthen relations between France and Russia in a practical way. As you know, there is much empty talk on the international stage and all kinds of discussions that have no practical result. But you cannot say this about our bilateral relations, and we would like to thank you for this.